21 replies to this topic

[pico1180]

First off, I love Xboot. It does everything I want it to amazingly, except one thing. It cant handle my Windows 7 All in One (all versions of Windows 7, 32 and 64 bit.) I know its good because it works fine with Windows 7 USB tool and YUMI.

I have a normal Windows 7 Pro 32 ISO that works fine with Xboot.

When I try to use my Win 7 AIO ISO, XBoot installs it, trys to defrag it, tells me it cant, then says it completed successfully. When I try to boot it, it just tosses me to the Grub4dos prompt.

Any sujestions?

[steve6375]

How big is the wim/ISO file? Is it formatted NTFS. How big is the drive? What error msg from grub4dos? What report does WInContig give when you run it on the drive? What is in the menu.lst file?

[pico1180]

Thank you for your fast reply. Let me asnser the questions in the order you asked.

ISO size: 3.80GB

USB files system: FAT32

USB size: 8GB

GRUB4DOS Error msg: I dont know if it gives me an error message per-say. It just drops me to a command promt and says;
-GRUB4DOS 0.4.5b 2010-11-24, Men: 631k/2036M/0M, End: 34D590
-[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
- list possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
- completions of a device/filename. ]

WinConfig report: I dont know how to pull a WinConfig report

menu.lst:
color magenta/white white/magenta black/white black/white
timeout 10


### MENU START
title Boot from hard drive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
chainloader (hd0,0)
### MENU END


### MENU START
title Win 7 AIO with SP1n
ls /images/winaiowithsp.iso || find --set-root /images/winaiowithsp.iso
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /images/winaiowithsp.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /images/winaiowithsp.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)
### MENU END


### MENU START
title Help!n
ls /images/help.iso || find --set-root /images/help.iso
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /images/help.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /images/help.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)
### MENU END

[Wonko the Sane]

Is the .iso CONTIGUOUS?
That menu entry tries to map it directly (for which the .iso NEEDS to be contiguous on filesystem) and if it fails tries to load it into memory (--mem) so you would need quite a lot of memory to manage a 3.80 Gb .iso!

WinconTig, not WinconFig:
http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/en/


Wonko

[pico1180]

Thank you Wonko... It tried to load it into memory. I got error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory.

I'm guessing the ISO is not contiguous.

So, the question is, how do I make it contiguous?

[steve6375]

There is probably not enough free space on the USB drive to make the iso contiguous in situ. Copy ALL files to a new folder on your C: drive, reformat the drive using RMPrepUSB 2.1.638 latest Beta as FAT32 - Bootmgr - Boots as Hdd - then click on Install grub4dos button and install grub4dos - then copy ALL files back from the folder on C: drive to the USB stick. Then test in QEMU (press F11).

[pico1180]

I'm not sure if that is exactly what I am looking to do. I know how to make this AIO ISO bootable and work properly. I just dont know how to make it work with XBoot.

[steve6375]

Did you use XBoot on a freshly partitioned and formatted USB drive? If not can you try it and do the large ISO as the first addition.

[pico1180]

Yes. For now I am just using this ISO and trying to get it to work with XBoot.

[Wonko the Sane]

It seems like I need to be more explicit.
That image must be contiguous.

Get Wincontig.exe and run it on that .iso, THREE possibilities:

• the .iso is already contiguous and *something else* is the problem
• the .iso is NOT contiguous AND Wincontig can make it contiguous
• the .iso is NOT contiguous BUT Wincontig cannot make it contiguous because there is not enough space on the stick

Wonko

[pico1180]

Ok,

This is all new to me and I'm not sure really what I'm doing, but here is what I did. I loaded my AIO ISO in WinContig. I told it to defrag. I attached the Defrag Report.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[pico1180]

Hmmm.. The AIO ISO becomes fragmented when its coppied to the USB. When I try to defrag it on the USB it says it cant. Something about not enough space. So I thought I would be tricky and copy it to a local drive and defrag it there. However, WinContig does see it as being fragmented when its on a drive. Its only seen as being fragmented when its on the USB. I thought it was the USB so I tried another. Some thing on that one.

I dont get it...

[ilko]

I have a normal Windows 7 Pro 32 ISO that works fine with Xboot.

Is this confirmed? Did you continue Setup or just saw the welcome screen?
http://sites.google....boot/tipsntrick

4) Only Supported ISO file will works.

Some ISO files which are not supported can be added using Grub4dos ISO Emulation

Go to page Tips & Tricks for further details.

NOTE: Windows XP, VISTA ,7 install Disks are not supported.So do not try to add them.

Starting Vista/7 Setup from ISO needs some additional steps, mentioned many times in the forum and available in Steve's tutorials in his signature. Unless XBoot performs them, which doesn't seem to be the case looking at menu.lst posted and XBoot web site, there is no point of trying to defragment your ISO just to find out Setup won't continue.

[steve6375]

Hmmm.. The AIO ISO becomes fragmented when its coppied to the USB. When I try to defrag it on the USB it says it cant. Something about not enough space. So I thought I would be tricky and copy it to a local drive and defrag it there. However, WinContig does see it as being fragmented when its on a drive. Its only seen as being fragmented when its on the USB. I thought it was the USB so I tried another. Some thing on that one.

I dont get it...

You need to understand how files are stored in a filesystem! Consider a disk with files and unused areas like this:
FILE1<1MBspace>FILE2<1MBspace>FILE3

Now if you copy a 500K file to the drive we get

FILE1 NEWFILE<500Kspace>FILE2<1MBspace>FILE3

If instead we copy a 1.5MB file to the disk we get:

FILE1 NEWFILE_1M FILE2 NEWFILE500K <500Kspace>FILE3

When you copy this fragmented file to another drive, if that drive has a 2MB free space, then the file won't be fragmented. But if you try to copy the file back to a different drive which does not have 2MB of CONTIGUOUS FREE SPACE on the drive, it will end up fragmented again.

So what you need to do is DEFRAG the USB drive to get all the free space into one contiguous block - but in order to defrag you must have lots of spare space on the drive to move the files about and make temporary copies. In your case you have a large non-contiguous 3.8GB file but you don't have 3.8GB of FREE space on the drive to make a temporary copy of it - so it cannot defrag the file and probably Windows will not be able to defrag the drive fully either (but you could try a Windows defrag followed by Wincontig - it may work if you are lucky).

So the best and quickest way to fix the drive is to do as I have suggested! Either:
1. Wipe the USB drive, reformat it and use XBOOT again from scratch and make sure the 3.8GB ISO is the first thing you add - this MAY NOT work or it MAY work - it depends on what XBOOT does...
OR
2. Copy all files from the USB drive to a temp folder on your C: drive - wipe, partition and format the USB drive - copy all files back again - install grub4dos.

[pico1180]

So the best and quickest way to fix the drive is to do as I have suggested! Either:
1. Wipe the USB drive, reformat it and use XBOOT again from scratch and make sure the 3.8GB ISO is the first thing you add - this MAY NOT work or it MAY work - it depends on what XBOOT does...
OR
2. Copy all files from the USB drive to a temp folder on your C: drive - wipe, partition and format the USB drive - copy all files back again - install grub4dos.

DId both. Neither worked.

[pico1180]

Is this confirmed? Did you continue Setup or just saw the welcome screen?
http://sites.google....boot/tipsntrick



Starting Vista/7 Setup from ISO needs some additional steps, mentioned many times in the forum and available in Steve's tutorials in his signature. Unless XBoot performs them, which doesn't seem to be the case looking at menu.lst posted and XBoot web site, there is no point of trying to defragment your ISO just to find out Setup won't continue.

My All in One ISO wont get me to the setup screen. Once I can get my ISO to load then I will go to the next step. But for now, I cant even get it to load.

[ilko]

My All in One ISO wont get me to the setup screen. Once I can get my ISO to load then I will go to the next step. But for now, I cant even get it to load.

You probably did not understand me.

The rephrase- is it confirmed XBoot supports Windows ISOs at all? Because docs and menu.lst posted suggest NO. Which implies, even if you get grub4dos to load your AIO ISO, where you are currently stuck, you still won't be able to perform complete setup.

Try again with your

I have a normal Windows 7 Pro 32 ISO that works fine with Xboot.

and reconfirm it works indeed (going after Setup welcome screen), and you are not just wasting time.

[steve6375]

DId both. Neither worked.

Very informative! Do you mean that you tried both of the suggested methods (especially 2) and that when you ran WinContig to Analyze the ISO file afterwards, it was not contiguous? - I find that hard to believe...

[Wonko the Sane]

... there is no point of trying to defragment your ISO just to find out Setup won't continue.

Let me disagree on this.
It is called learning (it won't work anyway but you will have learned that images non-mem mapped need to be contiguous and how to make them so).

Remember that the OP question was not:

How can I boot my AIO from USB?

but rather (as I read it)

• l love Xboot.
• I want to add my AIO to Xboot.
• I know my AIO is good because it works with Windows 7 USB tool and YUMI
• I have a normal Windows 7 Pro 32 ISO that works fine with Xboot.
• When I try adding my AIO it doesn't boot and grub4dos errors out. Any suggestions?

Wonko

[encartx]

Very informative! Do you mean that you tried both of the suggested methods (especially 2) and that when you ran WinContig to Analyze the ISO file afterwards, it was not contiguous? - I find that hard to believe...

I can confirm step 2 works. I had same contiguous error with my W7 AIO iso.

(1) Created a dummy iso file by renaming another, smaller iso (154Mb) to the same thing as my W7 AIO iso (4Gb)
(2) Formatted USB stick (8Gb stick) in windows FAT32, quick
(3) Used Xboot File -> Open dummy iso.
(4) Clicked Create USB, selected grub4dos
(5) After complete, copied actual W7 AIO iso into "Images" folder on USB stick, replacing the dummy file.
(6) Tested file on USB stick with Wincontig.exe, showed as contiguous
(7) Clicked QMEU tab and booted up stick, selected W7 AIO and booted no problem

Now you can add other iso files with Xboot without formatting stick, for multiboot. Keep in mind you will need to reinstall grub4dos afterwards, and may need to edit menu.lst or /boot/grub4dos/linux.lst and set filename of iso accordingly.

Edit: This does NOT solve the "driver error" encountered once in Windows setup. Look here for solution: http://www.rmprepusb...ials/firawiniso

Edited by encartx, 02 October 2012 - 11:29 PM.

[steve6375]

Many of those steps should not be necessary and may even cause the file to be non-contiguous. Just...

1) format stick (use RMPrepUSB )
2) Use Xboot (and use the real ISO)

???

[ibach]

if your install.wim is too big simply split it to install.swm files smaller than 4gb (fat 32 file size limit) using imagex.exe and insert it to iso file instead of install.wim.
like this
imagex /split install1.wim install.swm 3900
3900 is the size of the part 1,2,... in kb.
last part will be smaller.

now when the iso gets extracted by yumi or imagex or whatewer, there will be no files larger than 4gb, and no problem with "disk space" .

you can make smaller files if you need to defragment the usb with little free space left. 600mb maybee.
in this way you can allso make bootable CD version of windows 7 installation (dont see the point in that though...)

Edited by ibach, 13 October 2012 - 08:04 PM.